


End Game

by verbumaddicta



Category: The Royal Romance (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-10-05 20:10:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17331563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/verbumaddicta/pseuds/verbumaddicta
Summary: This is a literal example of me being unable to like things on a low-key level. Since I started playing Choices, it has literally taken over my life, and The Royal Romance is definitely my favourite visual novel on the app.This was a little, spontaneous scene I decided to write after completing book 3 for the 5646474th time, and found myself wondering what everyday life would look like for <3 Liam <3 and MC - I called mine Elizabeth (don't ask. I'm British and it was the first novel I played on the app, so I guess I just read the word 'royal' and filled in the gaps. I for real did NOT expect this to become such an obsession, but I'm pretty used to Elizabeth, so I'm rolling with it.)





	End Game

"You can't keep doing this."

"Elizabeth, shh. It's okay."

"No, Liam, it's not. You can't keep DOING this to me."

"Elizabeth--"

"This is EXACTLY what happened last time. You PROMISED you wouldn't do this again."

"Look, it might not happen yet. Just calm down and--"

"YOU calm down, Liam, and tell me what's happening. Are you going for it? Is this really happen-- GOD DAMN IT."

She watched, livid, as Liam - having added up his remaining Monopoly money - reached warily across the table to take the 101 Dalmatians card. The look on his face would have looked more in place were he scaling the very narrow edge of an erupting volcano, than over their Saturday night game of Disney Monopoly. After taking one look at her face, he couldn't help but snort with laughter. His attempt to reach across the table to hold her hand, however, was met with a cushion to the face. 

"Hey! Elizabeth, it's just a g--"

"Do NOT start with your stupid 'it's just a game' speech!" she shouted, mocking his voice in a way that only made him laugh even harder. He knew she was a sore loser, and ridiculously competitive when she wanted to be, but it was one of the things he loved about her. He smiled adoringly as she stood and placed her hands on her hips.

"We may as well just pack it up now. There's no WAY I'm going to win now that you've gone and--" 

Before she could finish, he rose fluidly and tackled her onto the nearby sofa, his arms encircling her waist protectively to cushion her fall. She squealed and laughed in spite of herself as he tickled her relentlessly, but arranged her features into a stubborn scowl again the second he stopped. It took everything he had not to laugh at her again as he stared down at her, and lovingly swept the hair from her face.

"Would it please the Queen more if I gave her the 101 Dalmatians card?"

Her face twisted into an expression of rage as she stared up at him, and as she reached for another cushion, he tickled under her arms until - giggling - she begged for mercy, and her expression sobered.

"There's no point in you just GIVING it to me. That's not real."

"Right... so, I should have LET you take it instead? Would you have been happy winning, knowing that there was no competition?"

She opened her mouth to respond - then closed it again - then opened it again - and then closed it with a scowl. Liam winked at her, and lowered his head to kiss her nose sweetly. 

"I'm willing to sell the card to you if you'd prefer, my love."

Sitting up, she cast a glance at her depleted stack of Monopoly money, her expression glum. 

"I don't have enough money anyway, and knowing you, you'll just buy the other blue card I need. Let's just go to bed."

Hiding a smile, Liam pulled her softly back to her position on the floor around the game board, keeping hold of her hand.

"I'd accept... other forms of payment." His voice was a murmur as smooth as honey, and his sudden seriousness made her - and consequently, him - laugh out loud.

"Are you bribing me, my King?"

He grinned boyishly, and undid the top set of buttons on his shirt - exposing JUST the right amount of perfectly sculpted chest to get her heart racing, and that familiar look in her eye. His grin widened as he leaned back, propped himself up on his elbow, and ran a hand casually through his hair.

"Never. I was simply giving my beautiful, intelligent, ridiculously sexy Queen the chance to--"

Within seconds, she was upon him, the contents of the game - and both their glasses of red wine - strewn haphazardly upon the carpet. Her lips crushed his with a fierce sense of urgency - every nerve in each of their bodies alive with heat, and fire - and his arms locked around her waist, pulling her as closely to his body as was physically possible. A familiar, dizzying heat began to rise in the pit of her stomach as his scorching hot kisses moved from her lips, to her jaw, to her neck, to her chest, to--

A knock at the door startled the two apart, red-faced and flustered, and they stared at each other in a loaded silence. Their breathing was heavy, their clothes were in disarray, and the place was a mess. It only took a few seconds for their deer-in-the-headlights expressions to fade, and when they did, they burst into a fit of laughter - no doubt fuelled by the adrenaline that was still coursing through their veins. The two were in a safe house for the evening; a training exercise, as Bastien had put it, to prepare them for the hopefully non-existent event that they would need to escape the palace and hide out for a while. Elizabeth had argued that they didn't need to spend the night, but Liam had tempted her into a night away from the palace - just cheap wine (Elizabeth had actually requested the cheapest that the palace owned, much to Madeleine's distaste), a board game, and the company of her King.

Elizabeth smoothed down her hair and pulled up her bra strap as she rose to answer the door, and Liam began to button back up his shirt, unable to keep the love-struck smile from his face.

"You good?"

He smiled at her with such affection that her body filled with warmth, and her heart seemed to stutter. 

"With you? Always."

Grinning, she opened the door. Drake, Hana and Maxwell filed into the room.

"Hey, guys. What did you get up to this even--"

Maxwell's voice trailed off, as the three took in the destruction of the game - and wine- before them. Whilst Maxwell and Hana's expressions were pictures of confusion, Drake immediately scowled and averted his eyes, seemingly having drawn his own conclusions as to what had happened. Liam discretely winked at Elizabeth as he draped his arm around her shoulders, and she smacked his chest lightly, fighting back a giggle.

"We played Disney Monopoly. To an extent" Liam replied, still forcing back laughter, as Elizabeth buried her own giggle in his chest. Realisation dawned on Maxwell's features, and he nodded knowingly. 

"Gotcha. Just be glad it didn't go the other way - Elizabeth is a really sore loser. When she and I played, she threw a plate at me." He frowned, staring into the distance, as though re-living some horrific memory. Elizabeth scowled.

"You deserved it. Liam would have received the same treatment were it not for the fact that my only resource in this place is cushions."

Hana plopped herself onto the floor, crossing her legs delicately, as she started to examine the small figures. 

"Can we play again? I've never played Monopoly before", she mused.

Her question was met with a deafening silence, as every pair of eyes in the room stared at her incredulously.

"Never?!"

Maxwell joined her, wide-eyed, on the floor, and started to arrange the different coloured notes into piles. 

"That's it. Drake, get over here, and Elizabeth and Liam - you sit there, and there. We HAVE to let Hana experience the torture of this game--"

"I'm not sitting between the love-struck teenagers" Drake interrupted, shaking his head. He played it off as a joke as he took his seat between Maxwell and Hana, but not before she'd caught the look in his eye. Quietly, she turned to him.

"Drake, are you--"

"I'm fine, Hana. Let's just... get the game set up."

Frowning, she nodded wordlessly, and did her best to soak up the wine on the floor. 

"You don't have to do that, Hana!" 

Elizabeth tried to take the towel from her best friend, but Hana only smiled.

"Elizabeth, it's fine, honestly! Why don't you figure out drinks and snacks?"

Elizabeth grinned and moved towards the kitchen, before remembering their location, and chewing on her lip. 

"Liam, do you think there's anything--"

"I asked Bastien to make sure the kitchen was well stocked, since we'd arranged to spend the night. There should be food in--"

"I got it! You guys wait here. Oh, and I'm playing as the Little Mermaid." 

Elizabeth didn't wait for a response - or, more accurately, Maxwell's whining declaration of disappointment for not having claimed the Little Mermaid first - before she headed into the kitchen, to see what she could find. Within moments, Liam's arms encircled her waist from behind, as he softly kissed the sensitive spot on her neck. 

"Does the Queen require any assistance?"

He continued peppering her neck with slow, heated kisses; her head fell back onto his shoulder as he kissed and sucked at the newly exposed skin, until a peal of laughter from the living room brought her back down to earth, and she told him sternly to stop. Or, well, she tried to... the sound emerged more as a moan than anything else, her voice inflecting at the end of her sentence involuntarily, as he drew his tongue from her neck to the back of her ear. Horrified, she turned to face Liam in his arms. His eyes were dark with desire, a mischievous smile on his lips.

"I can't say I've ever heard THAT noise before."

She covered her mouth in horror and embarrassment, but began to smile in spite of herself.

"Liam, shh. I hope nobody heard. We should come back to this... later."

He bent his head and whispered his response softly into her ear, his hot breath making her shiver with pleasure. 

"We certainly will, my Queen. I'd like to hear that noise again."

For the second time that night, heat overcame her, as her lips crashed against his in an electrifying kiss. Eventually, she pulled away for air, and leaned her forehead against his. With her love by her side, and the sound of the laughter of her three closest friends, she'd never felt more at peace.

"I love you, Liam."

"I love you too."

With an adoring smile, he kissed each of her cheeks, the tip of her nose, her forehead, and then, tenderly, her lips. 

"Oh, and... Liam?"

"Yes, my love?"

"This time... can we play as a team?"

Grinning widely, he tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear - his heart so full of love for her, that he felt he was sure to explode.

"I wouldn't want it any other way."

Hand in hand, and laden with snacks and alcohol, the King and Queen of Cordonia joined their three closest friends around the Monopoly board, where they laughed and talked and played until the early hours of the morning. 

Liam rested against the sofa and sat behind Elizabeth - her body situated snugly within his legs, his knees bent either side of her - as they played as a team; though, it's probably fair to say that Liam spent more time smiling affectionately at his wife, and playing with her hair, and kissing her shoulder, than he did on the game. He decided, in that moment, that those were the times that mattered most. He fought back a shudder as he allowed his mind to briefly re-visit the horrors they had experienced at the hands of Anton, but in a strange way, he felt almost at peace with it - as, without those tests of love, loyalty, intelligence and endurance, they could never have recognised the peace, and perfection, of moments such as those.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys liked this. It was more catharsis for me than for any real audience, but I enjoyed writing it, and thought I may as well have SOMETHING to show for the hour of my life I've just lost.
> 
> Obviously all characters are owned by Pixelberry and this is just a bit of harmless fanfiction, but enjoy :-)


End file.
